Back Home The 30 Day War
by Warringer
Summary: The 30 Day War is a major event in the mainline Back Home universe. This is what happened
1. Chapter 1

Back Home – The 30 Days War

by Warringer

Prologue

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The large hall, easily as large as the Louisiana SuperDome, was silent. It was not really surprising as there was only a single person in the entire room that could have housed many more. Other than the SuperDome however, the large hall was constructed sorely from wood and paper. The other difference to the SuperDome were the large open slides in two sides of the hall, opened fully to allow fresh warm air to enter the hall, and allowing the sole occupant to look outside and over the tops of the numerous trees surrounding the hall.

The sole occupant was sitting on his knees in the center of the room, dressed in ornamental clothes that made him look like he had just stepped out of the movie 'Shogun', through the light blue color and the length of his hair was disturbing the image somewhat. His hands were placed on his knees and the violet eyes of his forty-something looking face were directed at one of the closed walls of the room. He ignored the wooden sword hilt that was placed before his knees as he stared at the wall, or more exactly the large painted image of a young man that was hanging from the wall.

The young man on the painting was looking like a younger version of the man sitting in the center of the room and was dressed in similar clothes, holding the wooden hilt of a sword in his hand. The facial expression of the painted young man showed determination and his pose that he seemed to be ready to strike.

The sole occupant of the hall continued to stare at the painting as is his stared had the power to give the painting life, while his thought were swirling behind the expressionless face.

Shinji Yakumashi, head of the Yakumashi family of Jurai, just stared at the painted image of his now dead first son, Narijo, silently cursing the fact that Narijo hadn't been able to keep his hands from anything female that hadn't been able to get out of his way in time as well as his pride.

Unbidden the memories over his dead pushed themselves to the surface of Shinji's thoughts. Narijo had managed to impregnate one of the families servants, a lowly maid and a Wau at that. As soon as the pregnancy had been known to him and Narijo's mother, Shinji had told his to deal with it, not wanting a bastard halfbreed in their family.

Shinji had thought that the maid would do the sensible thing and abort her pregnancy when presented with some money to sooth her. She hadn't and disappeared from the planet, to go to Earth to give birth to her bastard halfbreed there.

Several veins became visible Shinji's face, while his expression didn't change.

Earth, a third rate colony that had forgotten its roots in the Empire. A third rate colony that was placed in a tactically very useful position in case of a war with the Minbari and their lapdogs. A third rate colony that should have been brought back into the Empire where it belonged.

A third rate colony that dared to defy Jurai.

Whose inhabitants dared to defy their betters. Whose inhabitants dared to think that their laws were above those of the Empire. Whose inhabitants dared to murder his son for following his obligation.

Narijo had been obligated to deal with his 'one-night' stand and the bastard, but the so called law enforcement had dared to try and prevent him doing so.

Any other planet, any other colony, any other law enforcement had done the sensible thing and forgot about what had happened. But the Earthlings hadn't done the sensible thing.

Shinji still didn't know how they had imprisoned Narijo, but they had done it. And they had dared to sentence him to Death.

The 'Judge', the 'Jury' and the 'Prosecutor' had all denied to take the bribes to forget about the whole incident and the Emperor himself had forbidden to interfere with the Earthlings.

And Shinji hadn't even be able to take the bastard.

Shinji breathed in deep to calm himself.

Earth...

It was the perfect staging area for any attack against the Minbari should the War begin. And the sheer number of people living on that planet would make cheep labor for building fortifications, shipyards to repair ships and crew members for the fleet of the subject races.

And yet, the planet wasn't part of the Empire.

The Emperor had allowed his great grand son Tenchi, a bastard grandchild of that fool Yosho, to govern the planet and its people to his leisure.

And what had the bastard done? Given that power to someone who was _elected_ every few years by the people of the planet. It was a wonder why the whole planet wasn't pulling itself apart in an eternal war over the right to govern over it. And even than the man or woman in charge didn't have the kind of power any other governor of a planet had.

To add insult to injury, they were gathering allies. Not only a few here and there, but they had managed to pull the entire League of Free Planets, the Narn and several other races into a close alliance. And more races were following that path. Some even breaking away from the Galactic Union or the Galactic Federation.

And they were exchanging technology with the other races, even going as far as asking them to do the same and building up a combined military.

They shouldn't!

It was going against every common sense as the races could build their own fleets with that technology and stab them in the back.

Oh, how Shinji wanted to see that.

The Earthlings couldn't be trusted with the technology they had. They hadn't any responsibility in that regard. Who in their right minds gave a lowly Quantum 0 civilization Quantum 2 technology?

They should be brought into the Empire at once before this foolishness could spread.

Shinji closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the latest pieces of intelligence his spies in the Galaxy Police had gathered. It seemed that the Earthling were now experimenting with technologies on par with those of this self proclaimed 'Greatest Genius of the Universe', who had build the Soja, the ship had had been stolen by Kagato later.

What would happen if they were to succeed?

They had already one ship that appeared to be build with such technology and some GP scientists were going as far as placing it in Quantum 4.

What would happen if they were to give that technology to other races like they had done with other pieces of technology?

What could happen to the Empire was horrifying. Even more if he thought about what could happen if the Minbari were able to get their hands on such technology.

Shinji closed his eyes for a moment and than breathed in deep before reaching for his Key and standing up.

He would need to call in a few favors and talk to several families who were thinking the same as him. It was time to act and reunite Earth with the Empire.

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Anson Davidson looked over his desk and into the face of his opposite as he leaned back in his seat a little. He tried to read the face of the person on the other side of the table, but even if he had long since learned to read the faces of many races in the galaxy there were some races where he had problems to do just that.

And being the Secretary of State of the Interstellar Commonwealth State Department, he didn't like that he was unable to read the person he was talking to. Especially in this case.

The person opposite to him was the Ambassador of the Quetzal, a high Quantum One civilization that was deep inside the Galactic Union. At the moment they still were independent to the Union, but the Coatl, the head of the small star nation feared that they would loose their independence very fast.

Anson knew that the Quetzal had every right to fear that they would become a subject race of the Jurians. With a good number of other races leaving the Union to become members of the Commonwealth, the Galaxy Police was, overtly, pushing many of the small independent star nations towards the Union.

For people who were used to plan over decades that was akin to an overreaction.

Anson also knew what would happen to the Quetzal one they were to become members of the Union and in that effect subjects to the Jurians. On the paper they would be autonomous, but in reality the Coatl would be replaced with a Jurian Governor who was most likely not going to be very overt in using and abusing the Quetzal.

The Federation wasn't much better in that direction, even less overt as they replaced the entire government with members of the Minbari Castes, essentially forming smaller 'Gray Councils' as the new government of their subject races, resulting in a very unyielding structure that all but prevented the races to advance to a new Quantum Level.

And than there was the Commonwealth. A real alternative to the two big powers. The Quetzal could only win in this situation, just like the Commonwealth would. Having a beachhead deep inside the Union was a good thing, but the Commonwealth would have to help them to get their defenses up to date.

Anson glanced over to a small holographic display only he could see floating over the left side of his desk. The Pentagon was willing to give the Quetzal a good number of new ships and military advisors should they become part of the Commonwealth. He had been surprised to see that the Secretary of Defense was willing to give away a pair of Demeters.

Than he looked back into the reptilian face of the Quetzal ambassador. Never in his life he would have imagined to have to negotiate with a snake like species. He just couldn't shake off the feeling of negotiating with someone who could sell him a ninety year old hunk of scrap as a brand new car.

The Quetzal were very snake like, only the pair of arms was making them different to Earthbound snakes. There were no legs, only their more than thirty feet long and thick body they used to slither around and coiled it up when they were sitting. There were also the very colorful feathers that ran down their spines and formed a halo around their heads.

"What can I do for you, Ambassador?" he asked after a while.

The Quetzal Ambassador had asked for this meeting and Anson was hoping that he would finally follow the proposal he had made to the Coatl, should they chose to become members of the Commonwealth.

The Ambassador bowed his head slightly and slowly reached into one of the numerous small pockets of the crossed leather belts that were the only piece of clothing his race wore aside from environment suits. After a moment he produced a data crystal.

"The Coatl and his ministers had talked about your proposal," the Ambassador said and Anson raised an eyebrow.

Okay, this was new. Normally the Quetzal weren't going to come down to business this fast and make smalltalk for about half an hour or longer.

Anson took pride in his pokerface and in cases like these he was glad that it was close to perfect as he hid his interest.

"And they were approached by a member of the Galaxy Police," the Ambassador continued and placed the crystal on the desk. "He... 'proposed' us to become members of the Galactic Union."

Once again Anson was surprised how well the Quetzal were able to speak any language perfectly after a few tries as he could hear the quotation marks around 'proposed'. He hid his frown and looked at the small display again. It seemed that he would have to hand the new proposal to the Ambassador.

"I gather that that proposal was... interesting," he said after a moment as he took the crystal and looked at it.

"It was," the Ambassador said. "And it allowed to make the Coatl to make his decision."

Anson fought the impulse to grind his teeth. He had had a similar conversation a few times before. And it normally ended with the Ambassador withdrawing and the race in question becoming members, or rather subjects, of the Union or the Federation.

"I am sure that that decision was made for the best of your people."

The Quetzal nodded and Anson was surprised to see something that appeared to be a smile. Not something that looked very nice in the face of a snake.

"The Coatl wonders how fast he can sign the Carta of the Interstellar Commonwealth."

Anson was stunned by the answer of the Ambassador and his eyes once again wandered towards the small display and wondered how much of the Quetzals psychological profile was inaccurate. Something like this didn't seem to be something this race would do.

Anson recovered fast however and smiled.

"I am sure that you can sign the carta inside the next one or two month. But I will contact you once I have been able to talk to my secretaries about this."

The Ambassador nodded slowly and slowly uncurled his body from his sitting position.

"May I ask about this crystal?" Anson wondered as the Ambassador slowly moved towards the door.

The Ambassador stopped and looked back at Anson with a smile.

"I think you will find the Union Proposal interesting," he said and opened the door to leave.

As the Quetzal left Ansons Office, he looked at the crystal.

He would need to talk to a few friends after watching the video on the crystal.


	2. Chapter 2

Back Home – The 30 Days War

by Warringer

Chapter One

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Director Andrew Matthews of the Commonwealth Intelligence Agency shook his head as he looked at the place where a holographic display used to be until a few moments ago. He had seen this video for several times now and it still shocked him what he had seen there.

He had gotten a data crystal with the video two days ago, after his old friend Anson Davidson, the Secretary of State had talked to the Quetzal Ambassador.

The last two days had been used to scan the crystal and the video file for any sign that it might be tampered with, but there were no signs of tampering. There had even be several scans if the video had taken of a holographic projection, but once again it came back negative.

As far as anyone knew, this video was genuine.

He turned his head and looked at the President, his Chief of Staff, the Minister of Defense and Secretary of State.

The President, Neral Dane, was a Ferron and as such he presented the fact that the Commonwealth was a nation that followed its principles of equality.

His Chief of Staff, K'Nal, was a Narn and the Minister of Defense, Mar'lan, was a Dilgar. That made Matthews and Davidson the sole humand in the room.

And all four were pretty much staring at the place where the display used to be until a few moments ago.

"I cannot believe that they would be so bold," the President said and he leaned back in his chair heavily, making the metal and leather creak under his weight.

The scene they had seen was just that bold. And it presented the heads of the Commonwealth with insight how the Union was able to pretty much press gang small independent nations into the Union after the separation of several of their members to become members of the Commonwealth.

"And I think we now know why several of the candidates for the Commonwealth have up and left for the Union," K'Nal noted dryly.

Matthews looked at the empty space where the display used to be again and once again shook his head.

The scene had been rather short, but it showed how far the upper echelons of the Union were willing to go to grow in power and size, especially with the Commonwealth now pretty much combining the independent nations of the galaxy.

It had shown a meeting between the Coatl of the Quetzal with several of his advisors, talking about everyday politics and several religious festivals of the next few weeks. The meeting had been pretty much interrupted when an Officer of the Galaxy Army, the military arm of the Union, had simply teleported into the meeting. Than he had, not very hidden, threatened the Quetzal with a full economic blockade and possibly military action if the Coatl wouldn't decide that they became members of the Union.

"We know what a full economic blockade can do to a planet or a small star nation of several planets," Mar'lan said and Matthews could see just a hint of hate in the Dilgars face.

That was not surprising. Omelos, the old homeworld of the Dilgar had been blockaded after the unconditional surrender of the Dilgarand the result was well known. Nothing had gone in or out. Well, nearly nothing.

"Well," Matthews said after a moment," we know that the Quetzal won't starve as they are independent from food imports. Their industry is another matter through."

"And their main trade partners are nearby members of the Union," Davidson added.

"Not something that would do them good on the long run. And if the Galaxy Army follows through with their threat of military action..."

"We saw what happened to the Nb..." the President tried, but some races had names that were nearly unpronounceable for a human or humanoid voices.

Silence hung in the room. The Nbkrtl had been all but wiped out and the rests of their populations were slowly starving on their destroyed worlds, while the Galaxy Army and Galaxy Police were blockading their worlds, preventing the Commonwealth to send humanitarian aid. There had been tries to send relief good to their worlds, but the Galaxy Army had escorted them back to Commonwealth space at gunpoint.

"How likely is it that the Quetzal would fold up anyway?" the President wondered out loud.

"Not very high," Davidson said after a while." Since they did not fold up at the first threat, they won't fold up until the end of time. They might drive one of the hardest bargains I can imagine, but once they give their word or come to a conclusion of the bargain, they keep their word, no matter what."

"I think they fear that their culture is going to be destroyed more than most other races."

Matthews frowned.

The Quetzal feared the destruction of their culture with every right. The Jurians and with them the entire Galactic Union just as well as the Minbari and the Galactic Federation had a very serve case of 'The White Mans Burden'. Every culture not their own was primitive and the people of those cultures needed to be enlightened with the 'right culture'. The Union was careful with their destruction of foreign cultures and the replacement with their own, but the Minbari weren't. The Minbari were acting more like the Japanese during the occupation of Korea.

"We need to bring the Quetzal into the Commonwealth," Mar'lan said, and broke the silence that had once again descended upon the room." Not only to make sure that their culture survives. We need a fleet base as far into Union space."

"If we can keep them from the Union," K'Nal added," It will also be a signal to the other independent nations and people that the Union and the Federation can't press everyone under their thumb."

"The question is," the President wondered after a moment," how are we going to do it?"

It once again brought silence to the room.

"Politically," Davidson noted," it would have the biggest impact, if we could manage to get he Coatl to sign the Commonwealth Carta while his worlds are blockaded. It would show that the Commonwealth doesn't care about these blockades."

"The problem would be that the Galaxy Army or the Galaxy Police are going to keep every ship from the planets. And once the Carta is signed they could still invade the Quetzal planets and not acknowledge the signing of the Carta."

"Not if we hide the ships we give to the Quetzal and a 'White Fleet' in jumpspace and let them drop out once the Carta is signed," Matthews said." Additionally are intelligence operations to keep the attention of Galaxy Army and Galaxy Police away from the Quetzal. That could buy additional time we need to get the Quetzal into a good defensive. I doubt that the Union is willing to attack an entire fleet of the Commonwealth 'visiting' a new member nation. That would be an act of war."

Matthews looked around and at the other men in the office. One after the other they nodded.

"We would need to talk to the Coatl first through."

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Dark clouds, made of sulfur, dust and just about everything not very healthy hung high above the desolate landscape, littered with destroyed buildings, the skeletal remains of trees and other plants. Here and there one could see the remains of animals or even what used to be a sentient being.

Just about thirty years ago, this place used to be a fertile world, populated with a race that was considered the bane of local space by the less developed races.

Doran was a dying world, its crust cracked by numerous volcanoes that spit dust, brimstone, sulfur and many more stuff that was considered unhealthy. All this had been caused by a single meteoric strike into an inactive tectonic zone that had unleashed a tectonic nightmare on the once lush world.

Long since the Doranian War, which had brought Earth into space and paved the road to the unification of local space under the banner of the Interstellar Commonwealth, Doran was isolated from the rest of the galaxy by a blockade of orbiting ships. First of the Global Defensice Initiative of Earth, later from ships of the Interstellar Commonwealth.

And still there was conflict happening on the planets surface. Even as the planet was growing more and more inhabitable, the Doranian forces continued to fight, dug into massive sub planetary installations they had build long time in the past, just before their first great leap into the space around them.

Mines were still producing ore, factories produced consumer and military systems, hydroponic gardens produced food and the Doranians themselves produced offspring that continued to fight a war they had already lost.

To Earth and the Interstellar Commonwealth, Doran was a mixed affair. For once they couldn't allow the Doranians to go back into space and try to regain their glorious past and the blockade of the planet and the conflict that still happened on the surface ate away troops and vessels. On the other hand, Doranians were still fighting and as a known enemy, it was easy to contain them. Very useful for training your own troops and give them experience in a combat setting.

The Commonwealth Marines loved this environment. It had everything they needed for combat training and allowed them to try out new toys.

First Lieutenant Hotaru von Bismark, breathed in as she fought the light headache that came from her new implants. For a moment she wished that she could take off her helmet to massage her eyes, but compromising the seal of her Mjolnir was not something she wanted to do out in the wild of this planet. She knew the rumors. Everyone seemed to know a trooper who had taken of his or her helmet and than kneed over because of one or another of the unhealthy stuff that was polluting the atmosphere.

Sure those were rumors, but she didn't want to test if they were true.

For a moment she closed her eyes and tried to chase away the headache, before opening them back up.

"Big Dragon," she heard the voice of Sergeant Miller, who was in command of her Scout squad." We found some Cats."

Hotaru frowned.

"Civies?" she wondered out loud.

Okay sure, it was very unlikely that there were any civilians left on this planets, but she had to make sure. Even if the Commonwealth was not really in war with the Doranians anymore, the continued operation on Doran was closely monitored by various places and should one of them suspect a field command of attacking civies, it would have the same impact as if it happened in war.

"Negative," came the reply." We got a six bricks, a squad of heavies and four squads of light infantry."

She shook her head lightly. The Doranians still continued to learn, even if they had been herded on this planet and with their backs against the wall. Some of the things they had learned was the importance of guerrilla warfare as well as that of heavily armored vehicles, such as tanks. Of course by now they had indeed developed their own portable shielding generators.

A 'brick' was one of the successful tries of the Doranians to design and build something that could be called a heavy tank. It was crude and primitive compared to most tanks of the Commonwealth, but at the same time they were effective. Most military strategists liked to compare the 'bricks' with the T-34.

After a moment of silent thought she pulled her M-44 closer to her and turned slightly to look towards the rest of her platoon, as they continued to march towards the next nav point of their combat patrol route. Than she breathed in deep and pinged at the com of Sergeant Miller, trying to pinpoint his current position.

'Implant operation will become normal for you, Lieutenant,' she heard her Training Commander say with a smirk.

That had been before they had gone to make her miserable for two weeks as she got used to the implants and the other modifications that came with Stage 2 implantation.

She pulled up a map and marked her position and that of Miller and her other scouts. A small package arrive and allowed her to pinpoint the position of the Doranian attack force and the relative strength.

While she had her own heavy weapons in her platoon, six bricks and a squad of heavy powered armor was a little too much for her to take on. Taking on what remained of them however...

"Gamma Six for Mulder Two Four," she said into a different com channel after pinging for the closest Mulder Unit.

"Two Four hears," came the reply.

"We got some bricks and heavies moving towards HQ. I wonder if you could soften them up for us to take down?"

She heard a low chuckle over the channel.

"We got nothing other to do, Gamma Six. Get us the position and we 'soften' them up a little."

She chuckled in return and pushed the package with the position and the relative strength over the com link.

"Have fun," she said with a chuckle." Gamma Six out."

"Well have that, Gamma Six. Mulder Two Four out."

Hotaru shook her head briefly.

"Whity," she called out through the still open channel to Miller." Heads down. You'll get a visit by Mulder."

"Oi!" was the reply and she could hear a somewhat mad shuffle. "We could take them without them."

She snorted.

"Let them have some fun to," she said." We'll mop up the rest."

"Than bring a really big bucket and mop, Big Dragon."

"Will do."

She chuckled again and turned towards the rest of her platoon.

"Okay, people, you heard it. We got some mop up duty..."

Overhead the heavily stealthed disk of Mulder Two Four streaked towards the position of the Doranian attack force.

The ASJ-3 'Mulder', was based on the very successful HSJ-3 Corbin and continued the line of the heavy airborne close combat gunships. Armed with a whole array of devastating weapons, raging from Plasma Gatlings to 105mm railguns, it spelled death to just about every ground unit it encountered.

Moving towards its target the gunners locked in on the bricks and heavies, before reaching their position and unleashing hell on the Doranians.

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He stopped and turned slightly towards the low stone guard rail and looked over the vast city that stretched below the Ziggurat. Many of the surrounding buildings the ancient building made from stone tried to reach its height, but none even came close.

And if they would have done so, the gods wouldn't look upon its builders in a positive light. The Ziggurat was over a kilometer in height however and so it was not very much of a problem to build high without building taller than the massive Ziggurat.

He breathed in and closed his eyes for a brief moment before his gaze went back over the vast city he had seen growing around the Ziggurat. He could still remember the times when the city had been small and his people simple farmers and herders.

Now the Ziggurat was one of the few buildings as ancient as him. In fact he had started building it with his own two hands, a humble servant of the Gods that guided him and his people into the future, back to the path among the stars where they had been cased away by an ancient evil.

More than two hundred Azakta had passed until the massive Ziggurat, the most holy place on the planet, had been finished. Untold masses of people had helped building it and it had been his first sign that he had been chosen by the Gods to guide his people back to the start. Having started to build the massive building and personally placing the last stone had been the first sign of his immortality.

Ages passed and he had managed to unite his people and they had thanked him by choosing them as their leader, be it in worldly or religious matters. And he had given his best to lead his people.

In the end he had lead them back to the stars, back to the place where they belonged.

Little had he known that the times after reaching back to the stars would become more complicated as they had ever been.

"Coatl?" he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Come here, Netarl," he said without taking his eyes from the vast city shape and its air and ground traffic.

He had to chuckle slightly. How many of the leader of the times he had born in, many thousand Azakta ago, would have brashly ordered people around in his place.

From the corner of his eyes he saw how the current leader of the Quetzal military slithered up to him and coiled up his body to sit comfortably. Additional to the normal crossed belts over his chest he wore a single belt around his body, carrying a blaster and a short sword in it, while a number of golden trinkets showed his pride as a warrior.

"What can I do for you, Netarl?" he wondered and turned his head slightly to look into the battle hardened face of the warrior, noting the number of faint scars and the small patches where he had lost parts or all of his feathers.

"Forgive me Coatl," Netarl said and bowed slightly, causing him to chuckle lightly." But I have a question."

"We all have our questions," he answered still chuckling. How he liked to play the part of the old wise man, even if he didn't look a day older than being thirty Azakta old.

Netarl's facial scales changed their colors slightly and the feathers on his head pulled together slightly, as he breathed in deep.

The Coatl noted that Netarl seemed to become a female for the next Azakta, he certainly began to develop the characteristics for it.

"Why are you pushing the signature of the Carta of the Interstellar Commonwealth?"

The Coatl closed one eyes slightly as he looked at Netarl. Of course he was encouraging his people to question him and his decisions, but it surprised him anyway. He had thought that it would have become clear why he had decided like this.

"Do you remember when the Galaxy Police Officer dropped by?" he asked.

Netarl's feathers bristles and the tip of his long body shook slightly, making low rattle like sounds.

"How could I forget."

The Coatl nodded slightly and looked back at the vast city.

"Than you know that their ultimatum will end ten light cycles before the Azakta. Than they are going to blockade our worlds."

Netarl nodded.

"That will prevent any of our people from outside our planets to return home for the Azakta."

From the corner of his eye he could see how Netarl's facial scaled paled slightly.

"And you know how loose the Unions definitions of blockading planets is. They can change their blockade into a full invasion at any time."

Netarl paled further and than shook his head violently.

"They wouldn't," he said silently and looked at the Coatl, a several millenia old Quetzal.

"They would," he said and sighed, looking out at the vast city again before closing his eyes." Why do you think the Galactic Academy has visited our worlds during the last Azakta?"

"But they cannot..."

Netarl stopped himself.

The Coatl turned around to look at him. Netral was a warrior. For him it was hard to think outside of the bounds of honor and valor as he knew them. He, the Coatl, on the other hand had a long time to learn and he knew more about the nations outside of Quetzal space than most scholars. And he knew that the Union and many other races had other views of honor and valor.

"They can," he said and placed a hand on the warriors shoulder." And they will. They will invade us when our entire people is helpless in the ecstasy of the Azakta. I might be the only one who is not longer part of the Azakta, but I am still just a simple Quetzal like you are. I cannot do anything to prevent them from invading us when they chose to."

He sighed and let go of Netarls shoulder.

"We will share the fate of many other people who have become part of the Union. They will destroy our way of life. They will force us to deny and forget the Gods. They will make us into one of their drone nations, and if the Jurians to order us to bark, we will bark. We would forget the Great Evil and that we are part of the only line of defense against it."

Memories of an old vision, one he had gotten more than a thousand Azakta ago, flashed through his mind. The orange, yellow ships of the Great Evil were swooping at a massive fleet of space ships, numerous different classes of all sized, trying to destroy them and failing. Ships he know knew belonged to the Interstellar Commonwealth standing side by side with ships of the Quetzal in this fight.

He breathed in deep and closed his eyes for a moment.

"The Commonwealth will protect our very culture. We will continue to be our own people, preparing to meet the Great Evil. Just like they do."


End file.
